Semi-Homemade Chocolate Chip Pound Cake

Sorry....  It's been a few days since I've posted.  Our lives have been run by basketball recently, so I find this post very fitting.  Our oldest son is in Boy Scouts and needed to make a cake to sell at the annual camp fundraiser this weekend {which I just so happened to be in charge of....why I volunteer for these things is beyond me}.  We found an idea on Pinterest that was just perfect for our 12-year-old basketball fanatic.

I don't love plain old cake mix cakes {they don't taste that great} but I don't love making cakes from scratch either.  A woman my husband works with gave me a great recipe for a doctored-up cake mix a few years back.  It's been my go-to cake for birthdays and special events and I always get rave reviews.  I usually make it in a bundt pan, but this time I used two round cake pans instead.

Ingredients:

1 cake mix - the kind with pudding in the mix {I usually use vanilla or chocolate, but any kind will do.}

1 small box instant pudding {vanilla, chocolate or whatever you have on hand}

1/2 cup sugar

8 oz. sour cream

4 eggs

3/4 cup water

3/4 cup vegetable or canola oil

1 cup chocolate chips

powdered sugar

Combine first three ingredients.  Add oil, water, eggs and sour cream.  Mix well with wire whisk or hand mixer.  Stir in chocolate chips.  Bake in a greased and floured bundt pan at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes.  Cool in pan for 10 minutes. Turn out on cake plate and dust well with powdered sugar. 

*If using 2 round cake pans, follow baking instructions on the back of the box.

**For this cake, my son and I put cream cheese frosting between the layers of cake and frosted the outside with more cream cheese frosting {colored orange}.  We then used Reece's Pieces to decorate it.

Out of all the cake mix/pudding mix combinations I've tried, I've got to say, my favorite is yellow cake mix with vanilla pudding mix and milk chocolate chips.  The one in the picture is chocolate cake mix, vanilla pudding mix and dark chocolate chips....that's a combination I haven't tried before, it just happened to be what I had on hand.  I hope the lucky winner enjoyed it!